The Boat That Rocked (2009)

Highly entertaining ensemble comedy written and directed by Richard Curtis.

It focuses on a North Sea pirate radio station, Radio Rock, and the DJs and other characters aboard it. Their adventures are juxtaposed against the government’s attempts to make pirate radio illegal and shut down the whole operation. 

The all-star cast includes Gemma Arterton, Kenneth Branagh, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans, Bill Nighy, Katherine Parkinson and Emma Thompson, but the film is told from the perspective of a teenager, Carl (Tom Sturridge), who joins the floating team and gains the sense of family and identity that he’s been missing. There’s also a thread about him seeking his father, who he’s led to believe is on the boat. 

There are plenty of laughs but there are poignant moments too. And each of the characters is extremely well drawn, so you feel you get to know them all. 

The music is fantastic as you might expect for a film set in 1966–1967. Warm yet unsentimental, it works towards a dramatic and satisfying conclusion.

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